29-Oct-07 2:00 PM  CST  

Men, Mission and Money: An Invitation 

by Mel “Red Cloud” Taylor
 
As chair of the board of directors, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with
many men who have chosen to be of service to our community. This service has taken many
forms—volunteering to cook thousands of crawfish; calling men about staffing or paying dues;
cooking a weekend’s worth of food for a weekend training adventure. Two men in particular
spend time each week volunteering at the MKP lodge answering the never-ending ringing
telephone and helping the MKP staff in so many ways. These men remind me of how important
those words “Go in mission, go in service” are. Simply put, we could not be ManKind Project
Houston without men in service to our community. Yet there is so much more possible, so much
more greatness and gold in each of us yet to be given. There is that old saying “give it away to
get it back.” So I invite you to think of those men—and women—you know who are in service to
our community, to their town, to the planet. And then ask yourselves, “how can I be in mission?”
How can I help the ManKind Project move forward in some way? 
 
The Board of Directors has approved the recommendation from our Leader Body that we
conduct 12 weekend trainings in 2008. This is exciting and an opportunity for us all. Our
weekend trainings are the beginning—an initial transformation process for each man who attends
to find out about his soul, his true self, his purpose and mission. I invite each of us to consider a
man who might attend a training, who might receive the gifts of connection and the enormous
power of what our weekend offers. I invite you to become an ambassador for our work. I ask you
to let other men know of our organization and the opportunities we provide all men. What better
way to live in mission than to see another man at our graduation ceremony and share his joy of
transformation, understanding and “gold” of self-discovery. There is room in our organization
for any man. Please...Men are waiting!
 
In my office I keep a poem called “The Invitation,” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. It hangs
near my office desk and I read it often. It can be read on Oriah’s homepage at
www.oriahmountaindreamer.com. In the most powerful of phrases it invites us to become, to
look within, and to connect. It asks us to find for ourselves those things in our lives that really
matter. It offers us an opportunity to examine what life at its finest is really about. 
 
That poem would have had far less meaning to me before my weekend training. I realize
now how many gifts have been bestowed upon me through this work. Yet, too often, I take for
granted how I am needed to help support MKP as an institution. As an organization, the Mankind
Project Houston needs each of us. We are needed to help staff our weekends. We are essential to
sustaining our organization through financial support to help pay for our staff, for our buildings
and for trainings for those men who need assistance. We are needed to support MKP Houston in
whatever ways you find in your calling to be of service. So in a final invitation, I invite each of
us to do our part in sustaining our organization. Each of us can help in whatever ways our heart
tells us—with money, with heart, with time.
 
 I offer blessings to each of you and prayers for the continued success of Mankind Project
Houston.
 
In service,
Mel
Red cloud
LOMG 10-00

 

Source: Mel “Red Cloud” Taylor

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